essential oils

I started using essential oils regularly about 19 months ago. In that time I have built a large collection and use them daily with my family as part of our daily routine. While I really love all my oils there are three that I reach for on a regular basis and always have an extra bottle on hand in case we run out and to share with anyone who is interested.

First is lavender, easily my most used essential oil. This oil is so incredibly calming and relaxing for the mind and the body. I diffuse and make a DIY calming spray to spritz our beds at night to promote a restful night’s sleep. I roll it on my littles feet (and my own) to calm them when they need a little calming help. I diffuse it in the car to help get out the stench of Neil’s sweaty climbing shoes and around the house to remove unwanted odors.

In the summer I am always using lavender to help soothe our skin after spending our days in the sun. It is seriously one of the most soothing methods I have ever used to help calm skin irritation due to the sun – simply mix a few drops with fractionated coconut oil or even better yet aloe vera gel and instant relief. I also love to mix it with a fragrance free lotion to moisturize and nourish my skin after a shower.

I could really write an entire post just on lavender and it’s many uses but I’ll save that for another day. Also if you aren’t into the aroma of lavender but want to take advantage of similar benefits petitgrainaka the “male lavender” is a great alternative.

My second must have oil is Balance aka grounding blend. I start my day with this blend by rolling it on the bottoms of my feet and taking a big cleansing breath. This blend helps me to stay relaxed, centered and grounded. Anytime I am feeling anxious and like I need to ground myself I roll on Balance or go straight to the diffuser to get the aromatic benefits.

While I haven’t been meditating or doing yoga much these days it is an important part of my practice when I do. I roll it on the bottoms of my feet and diffuse it to help relax my mind and body and to keep me grounded and centered. It helps me to find balance in my mind and body so such a perfect addition to yoga, meditation or simply to a stressful day.

I also love to combine Balance with lavender as a bedtime diffuser blend especially on those days when I feeling particularly overwhelmed it helps to provide me peace and relaxation so that I can sleep well and prepare for a new day.

My final must have oil is lemon. While this one I will admit isn’t quite as exciting as the previous two it is one that we use daily in our home. I add it to my morning water to help kick off my day and aid in digestion. I also use lemon combined with peppermintand lavender to help with seasonal respiratory discomfort.

Besides my morning lemon water the reason lemon is a must have is for all it’s cleansing benefits. With two small children I am constantly cleaning, removing greasy residues, removing marker stains from things and stickers from places that they shouldn’t be and lemon essential oil has because such a necessity to help with all of this. I make a simple DIY cleanser with it as well that my husband has come to love so much that he won’t use anything else. I am constantly making up new batches of the cleaner for him but I can’t complain because he loves it so much that he’ll wipe down the stove and counters with a smile.

A little (late) 2016 in review. This was the year that I really returned to myself and started to focus on my interests and passions. I found myself diving into the world of essential oils, something that I had been putting off for years out of fear of the unknown and the cost of investment.

What I didn’t realize back in January 2016 when I took the plunge was that I was investing in myself. Investing in my health and wellbeing as well as my families. This spiraled into me focusing on other passions such as my health coaching that had taken a backseat to motherhood and life. It also had me expanding my health coaching into essential oil education.

Additionally, I have felt empowered to focus more on my partner and love of my life and together we found a babysitter whom we love and we have a date night at least twice per month but usually three times.

Along with more focused time with my partner we spent the year really focusing on quality time with our kids exploring Portland and the PNW.

I have devoted more time and effort to my relationship with friends and have found myself surrounded by a group of really amazing people. People whom I have come to respect, love and whom I can rely on for support.

While this isn’t to paint a perfect picture, because things are by no means perfect, it is to say that when you take the time to follow your interests, explore new things and rededicate yourself to the things/ones you love life can be so much richer.

So cheers to 2016 and I look forward to what 2017 has to bring (especially this babe who will be joining us in June).

Doing: Cleaning. Call it early nesting or just an a lack of keeping up on household chores but I feel like I spend most of my time purging and cleaning our house. We have a tiny house and with two kids I feel like we just keep accumulating more things without letting go of things. I recently went through boxes of kids clothes and shoes that I had been holding on to simple out of laziness. Finally I set up a consignment appointment and was able to get rid of a bunch of things and the remainder is being donated along with a massive amount of my old clothes that are either too worn or I just know I won’t be wearing in the near future when considering pregnancy and postpartum time.

I must be doing other things than cleaning though right? I have a really great and FREE Essential Oils for Pregnancy, Postpartum and Babies that starts next week (pssst there is still time to join us) and I am working on a Spring Detox starting the first week of April – I’ll share more when I create the group.

In other ‘doing’ news we went to Seattle for Neil’s birthday at the start of January and then we went to Vermont to visit family at the end of January. As for February the month just flew by and was mostly spent catching up on life after the holidays and all the snow that literally shut down Portland.

Thinking about: I am constantly thinking about all the things I want to get done before this baby arrives. I’m also thinking about what we need for when this baby arrives because after Alder was born we had decided on having no more children so we sold everything and now all we have is a carseat and a few swaddle blankets. I know babies don’t need a lot but for us we would like to get a nice reclining rocking chair, a bassinet, a new stock of cloth diapers and eventually we will need to figure out clothes for this baby. I (of course) want a new wrap and ring sling – what can I say it’s the babywearing educator in me and knowing that I will be wearing this baby most of the time. Comment below if you have suggestions for newborn products.

Watching: Moana. We took the kids to see Moana as their first theater movie when we were in Vermont and since then we have been watching it at home at least every twice per week and when we aren’t we are listening to the soundtrack. I have to say I would watch this movie and listen to the soundtrack even if we didn’t have littles – it is just so good. I also re-watched/finished Haven on Netflix and Neil and I have been watching Top Chef and This is Us on the weekends. What have you been watching? Any suggestions?

Looking forward to: I am looking forward to this weekend. We have no major plans except Edith’s ballet class and doing a big declutter dump, recycle and donation drop off. Otherwise we are just enjoying the weekend and I’m hoping I can get a bit more organizing done and some work. I am also looking forward to having a mama’s night out to see Matilda at Keller Auditorium. Apparently it is “The best musical since The Lion King” according to TIME Magazine. I have seen broadway production of The Lion King and it was pretty amazing so I am hoping that this lives up to TIME Magazines claim. For those of you who are in Portland the show is running 2/28-03/05 if you want to check it out for yourself.

Reading: I have been reading Essential Oils for Pregnancy, Birth & Babies by Stephanie Fritz aka The Essential Midwife. This book has been one of the resources for my upcoming class series and I have been reading it for my own pregnancy since this is my first really using essential oils. Otherwise my reading has been limited to kids books but I am taking suggestions if you have any.

Loving: Hu Chocolate that I buy off Thrive Market because it is the best deal and the best chocolate I have ever had.I could probably do an entire post on my favorite food items right now – would that be of interest to you? Not food related I have been loving my snoogle and eye mask because without them I don’t think I could sleep. Urban Oreganics Baby Balm that Neil got be for Christmas. This baby balm is wonderful for babies but also expecting mamas and really anyone who could use a really wonderful moisturizing balm. I use mine on my stomach post-shower to help with stretch marks and to soothe my itchy belly.

My night time routine has been evolving over the past few months as I transition to cleaner, more natural and as frequently as I can DIY products. This is just the latest in my night time routine – my DIY Cleansing Wipes. They take minutes to make and super inexpensive to make.

Nightly DIY Cleansing Wipes

2 Tablespoons cleansing oil (optional)

2 Tablespoons fractionated coconut oil

1 teaspoon Witch Hazel

5 drops grapefruit essential oil*

5 drops melaleuca essential oil*

Combine all the ingredients in a 4oz glass jar or bottle, top with filtered water and shake to combine. Soak your cotton pad (cloth or not) in the cleansing solution and wipe. However avoid your eyes. So what about eye makeup? Use fractionated coconut oil or an all natural cleansing oil to first remove your eye makeup and then cleanse your face with one of your DIY wipes.

This cleansing oil really works! It removes all the dirt and residue off my face and leaves it feeling soft. It also helps with any blemishes. The fractionated coconut oil is moisturizing, the witch hazel is toning, the melaleuca essential oil has cleansing and rejuvenating effect on the skin and the grapefruit helps to improve the appearance of blemishes. Due to the use of grapefruit it is advisable to avoid sun exposure for at least 12 hours so this cleanser is best used at night.

What steps are part of your nightly routine? On a night when I am not feeling lazy I use a gel facial cleanser, toner, eye cream and moisturizer. On a lazy night I simple use a few pumps of the above cleanser and wipe my face #lazygirl.

*When I am speaking of essential oils I am ONLY speaking of those CTPG (certified therapeutic grade oils) – specifically doTERRA. Please note that not all essential oils are created equal.

As a parent to little ones, a #bosslady and someone who in general hasn’t always been a great sleeper I have spent years perfecting my bedtime routine. While I am still not always great about following my routine when I do I sleep well, wake up feeling rested and I’m ready to take on my day. So what are my essentials for a restful night’s sleep?

Turning off the TV, phone and other electronics. This is probably the one thing that I struggle with the most because I spend my evenings catching up with work which is all based online. However the nights when I unplug are the ones that make me feel amazing. So reminder to myself do this most nights of the week.

Dive into a great book. The nights I spend 10-15 minutes reading are the ones when I all asleep feeling more relaxed and end up feeling more rested. While I am reading my mind is feeling way less stimulated than it does when I am using a screen. Bonus I get to cross more books of my ‘to read’ list.

Meditation. I’m going to speak more about this in the coming weeks but spending 5-10 minutes (or more) meditating before heading to bed helps to calm the mind and the body. I go to bed feeling peaceful and ready to rest.

Sweet Dreams Spray. If you know me you know how important essential oils are to my life and of course I couldn’t go to bed without them. This spray has 10 drops each of lavender, cedarwood and juniper berry and is topped with distilled water. I put this all in a 2oz bottle and refill as needed. I spray all over our linens and around the bedroom. It smells AMAZING! I also love straight lavender or calming or restful blends.

Sweet Dreams Roller Bottle. Similar to the room/linen spray this is a 10mL roller bottle filled with 5 drops of each oil and topped with fractionated coconut oil. I roll it on the bottoms of feet right before bed for a restful nights sleep.

Going to Bed When I am Tired. I would say that this is one of my biggest tips. It’s easy to push ourselves to stay up later to work, watch another episode of a show or to go out and be social but if we feel tired it’s our body telling us it’s time to rest. So listen to your body and it will thank you!

Getting To Know Essential Oils

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